Exiting The Winter Of Our Discontent

Few Shakespearean lines are so often taken out of context and misconstrued as is the first line of Richard the Third, “Now is the winter of our discontent.”

England’s future King Richard is not lamenting what’s to come but rather embracing the season just over time’s horizon, “Made glorious summer by this son of York.” His brother Edward IV, who has just wrested the crown from Henry VI, ended his family’s long winter of oppression.